Four Teens In The Wrong Dimension

A Single Thought

A/N Did I take months to write finish this chapter cause life hit me like a sack of bricks? No, no I didn't :))

It goes without saying that Shazam attracted more attention with his lightning and bright red suit, than Superboy with his super strength and Robin with his sword.

" I hate you guys. " Billy says, but there is no heat in his words, only mild annoyance at the mere thought of sitting in front of a computer for hours upon hours looking for the right coordinates to get them back home.

" I saw an arcade on the way back, let's go check it out! " Blatantly ignoring the wallowing Billy, Jon proceeds to drag Ben by his arm out of the house, Damian follows behind at a leisure pace.

" Now I know how Oracle feels staring at her computer screens all day. " Billy jokes, staring at his own screen of numbers and graphs that display thousands upon thousands of coordinates, but only one will be the way back home.

" I've really got my work cut out for me. " Billy sighs in despair, " I wonder if I'd be twice as fast if I used magic to speed things up. " He questions halfheartedly.

It takes a full five seconds then, it hits him like a sack of bricks, " I Can't believe I didn't think of this sooner! "

---

" I bet I could beat you two at the basketball game! " Jon challenges the two full of confidence. The three teens ended up going to the arcade closest to their house as it appeared to be the only place not filled with (honestly) colourful, questionable, strange - and no doubt difficult to fight in - costumed heroes.

" You're on. I dominate this game like I dominate Sumo Slammers! " Ben declares with the same amount of confidence Jon has, " I highly doubt your claims. After all, I am the one who holds the world record for the most number of hoops shot. " Damian says, hand on his hip as he smirks smugly at them.

Ben looks at him, narrowing his eyes slightly, " ...I would call bluff on that claim, but I'm pretty sure that there is a world record for that. " Damian rolls his eyes at that.

" There is actually a record for that, believe it or not. " Ben looks to Jon, giving the boy a really? look while Damian's smirk only grows wider and somehow, even more smug. " What? I like to see what's new in for the season whenever I can, alright? "

For over an hour, the three play a majority of the games in the arcade, having fun losing and winning even if they get demolished so terribly ( Though, Damian enjoyed the winning part more than the losing.)

They would've stayed and play even more games, if the arcade did not get stormed and the people's safety threatened, due to a group of bad guys wanting some quick cash.

The unplanned robbery certainly making Damian dislike the bad guys even more than he normally does. " And the distraction was going just fine too. " Jon grumbles, crossing his arms and huffing as the three quickly retreat into a corner unnoticed.

" Tt. I've got this one. This won't take me too long. " Damian declares, silently blending into the shadows of the building as the cashier frantically dumps cash into a duffel bag.

" How long do you think the pro-heroes will take to get here? " The other two boys catch a civilian, no older than them, saying, " Ten minutes, give or take. I mean, It is their job to bring peace to us citizens. If they can't even do the one thing their paid to do, then they should just quit and find some other job. "

Jon finds the mere words and thoughts of the civilian very grating. He cannot even begin to fathom how Ben is feeling about them. " Ben, you okay? " He asks, placing a hand on his shoulder as slow as he can to get his attention.

" I'm fine, Jon. I was just thinking about something. " The smile he gives Jon, is a mixture of a lot of things Jon does not really grasp. But, the main things he does know from that smile, is that Ben's not one bit happy on their thoughts on what a hero is.

" I'm back, let's move before more troublesome things befall us. " Damian emerges from the shadow as quietly as when he entered it, the two, surprised by his speed, look to the bad guys lying on the floor unconscious and find themselves in silent awe as they get pulled out of the arcade by Damian.

There is a crowd gathered at the entrance of the place, all of whom are curious as to what's going on and which pro-hero will swoop in and save the day.

" They sure are taking their sweet time to get here. " One of the news reporters standing right at the front of the crowd, remarks.

" They have a really twisted view on what a hero is. " Jon remarks offhandedly as they walk through the crowd. Damian clicks his tongue in annoyance when another unsavoury comment is made from the crowd.

" Is it me just me, or do they not see us? " Ben says, sipping on a smoothie loudly as he observes the civilians actions and hears their conversations amongst each other up close.

" You guys took your time coming out. " They simultaneously look up to the voice beyond the crowd, " Billy! Aren't you supposed to be crunching numbers to help get us home? " Jon, the first one out of the crowd, questions the boy.

" How'd you do...whatever it was that happened? " Ben asks curiously once he too, is out of the unsavoury crowd.

" I may not be good at it, but I can do magic, you know. " Billy says as they start walking back to the house once Damian joins them. " Think you could you make us a portal back to our dimension? " Damian asks when they've reached the front door, they had speed walked the way to avoid any pro-heroes.

Ben opens the door and heads straight to the open kitchen for a snack with Jon, " If I could, I would've done it the moment we got here. Dimensional portals aren't a thing magicians typically deal with. "

Damian, the last to enter, closes and locks the door behind him.

Billy hops over the couch while Damian settles on a single seat couch, " Think you can cast a spell to speed up the process? " Ben asks, as he gives both Damian and Billy a tray of chilli fries each.

" Already did, it's why I went and met up with you guys outside the arcade. " He gesture to the running diagrams and numbers running at a brain numbing speed without a single soul manning the controls.

" On another note, this dimension has a really concerning view on what heroes should be. " Jon says as he sits on the armrest of Damian's seat, clearly still uncomfortable with the remarks thrown about by the civilians.

" These heroes do not hide their identities, they behave and act as if they are movie stars instead of actual heroes. There is more than one thing wrong with this dimension. " The dislike in Damian's words for the subject at hand is many times thicker than a dictionary book. Heck, it just might be able to knock some sense into these people just by swinging it around.

With his eyebrows furrowed, and his mind deep in thought, Ben throws out a suggestion on a whim, " Maybe we could do something about it. "

Billy looks at Ben with slight confusion, " How would we even do that? " They then begin to think about what they can do in their minds, tossing and turning ideas in their heads more than a hundred times in the span of five minutes.

The metaphorical lightbulb turns on when Ben finally gets an idea, " We get to the source of the trouble and change it. "

" By force. " Damian declares with confidence.

" By talking? " Billy says it with uncertainty.

" By changing their leader using force if talking doesn't work? " Jon, for better or worse, comes up with a mash of both suggestions.

' Oh, we've really got our work cut out for us. ' Ben concludes, holding in his laughter as the three boys argue with each other, each one offended by the other one's thoughts on what course of action they should take.